I don't know about you, but the last thing I want to know when putting my dollar into a vending machine to buy a pack of chips is how many calories I'm ingesting.

But that's going to be the new rule mandated by Obamacare; vending machine companies will have to post calorie counts of their products.

Office workers in search of snacks will be counting calories along with their change under new labeling regulations for vending machines included in President Barack Obama's health care overhaul law. play

Requiring calorie information to be displayed on roughly 5 million vending machines nationwide will help consumers make healthier choices, says the Food and Drug Administration, which is expected to release final rules early next year. It estimates the cost to the vending machine industry at $25.8 million initially and $24 million per year after that, but says if just .02 percent of obese adults ate 100 fewer calories a week, the savings to the health care system would be at least that great.

The rules will apply to about 10,800 companies that operate 20 or more machines. Nearly three quarters of those companies have three or fewer employees, and their profit margin is extremely low, according to the National Automatic Merchandising Association. An initial investment of $2,400 plus $2,200 in annual costs is a lot of money for a small company that only clears a few thousand dollars a year, said Eric Dell, the group's vice president for government affairs.

"The money that would be spent to comply with this _ there's no return on the investment," he said.

While the proposed rules would give companies a year to comply, the industry group has suggested a two-year deadline and is urging the government to allow as much flexibility as possible in implementing the rules. Some companies may use electronic displays to post calorie counts while others may opt for signs stuck to the machines.

Carol Brennan, who owns Brennan Food Vending Services in Londonderry, said she doesn't yet know how she will handle the regulations, but she doesn't like them. She has five employees servicing hundreds of machines and says she'll be forced to limit the items offered so her employees don't spend too much time updating the calorie counts.

"It is outrageous for us to have to do this on all our equipment," she said.

Brennan also doubts that consumers will benefit from the calorie information.

"How many people have not read a label on a candy bar?" she said. "If you're concerned about it, you've already read it for years."

I remember when the government demanded that food products include a list of ingredients. When it was discovered no one was reading them, they forced the food companies to make the print larger. People still aren't reading them.

The same thing will happen with calorie information. People may read them but what does it mean? How many grams of fat and carbs? You can have a relatively low calorie snack that contains half your daily allowance of fat. It just doesn't make any sense.

But it's not supposed to make sense. You are only to obey and get down on your knees to thank your government for taking such good care of you.